Google moves to extend DNS protocol

Google has teamed with DNS maven Neustar to propose an extension to the net's existing Domain Name System protocol, hoping to improve the way the protocol maps web users to particular data centers.

The news comes little more than a month after the web giant cum world power sensationally entered the DNS resolution business with its free Google Public DNS service.

Yesterday, Google and Neustar posted their proposed DNS extension to the dnsext mailing list, and other DNS providers - including conspicuous Google rival OpenDNS - are named as contributors to the proposal.

The Domain Name System converts text urls into numeric IP addresses. Typically, the first layer of this process - the "recursive" DNS service - is run by your ISP. But alternatively, you can opt for a third-party recursive provider like OpenDNS or, yes, Google. The recursive provider then taps records websites have stored with "authoritative" DNS providers like Neustar's UltraDNS.

In essence, the extension proposed by Google and Neustar would allow recursive DNS providers to pass a portion of the user's IP address data to the authoritative provider. This gives the authoritative provider a better idea of where users are located, which means it's more likely to send users to a nearby data center when resolving a net address.